The Story of the Spirit

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

We are continuing in our series “God’s Story, My Story” [3 weeks left, counting today]… we are learning to find our place in God’s unfolding story of salvation through Jesus Christ...

We are seeing that OUR stories… the stories of our lives… are not ultimately about us…

they are about God… and the work that he has been doing since he created the universe.

Just think about the POWER that God demonstrates in creating and sustaining everything in the universe for all of time...

This is a cluster of stars known as the Pleaiades… [show picture]

I did a little stargazing on my way in to the church building… from my car in the parking lot, I was able to find this constellation just above the church building… just Northeast of Orion… it looked like tiny little specks of dust…

They are over 2,604 TRILLION miles away from the earth… to our naked eye they look like a group of 7 stars (if you can see all of them)… but in reality there are over 3000 stars in that star cluster,

At one point in the scriptures, God asks one of his servants named Job, “Can you tie up the stars of the Pleaiades?”

That would be hard enough if it were 7 stars… but then we realize that God is saying… “Can you harness the power of over 3000 stars that are over 2,604 trillion miles away from you?… I can!”

In other words, God is saying… “Can you harness the power of over 3000 stars that are over 2,604 trillion miles away from you?… I can!”

God CREATED all of that power and HARNESSES all of that power… ALONG with the power of the rest of the galaxies in the universe… to keep them in perfect order...

Now consider the power God demonstrated in creating humanity… [pick up dust pan]

Genesis tells us that he formed man of the dust, and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life… and the man became a living creature.

That’s power...

Like… if any one of us takes the dust in this dust pan here and breathes on it… the only thing we are getting is a mess.

Now consider the power of God a little further in the story… in the Temple...

The most Holy Place was filled with what is called the Shekinah glory of God...

The evident presence of God among his people…

And God’s presence was so powerful that he split the red sea in two and held off the entire Egyptian army while the Israelites walked between the water on dry ground.

And to dedicate the thing, they lined up 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep

It was described as an All-Consuming Fire...

Or think about the resurrection...

God’s glory consumed burnt sacrifices without lighting a match...

The Bible says over and over that God RAISED Jesus from the dead by the working of his great power…

God’s glory killed people who didn’t treat him reverently enough...

There are so many other examples of the power of God that we could point to… but what I want you to understand today is that the same power that was at work since the beginning of time… is available to you and I today through faith in Jesus Christ. We call him THE HOLY SPIRIT.

When a person puts their trust in Jesus Christ for salvation...

When they admit that HE is the only Savior from their sin… and HE is the only Lord of all the earth… when they surrender their lives to follow him… in THAT MOMENT, what is happening is that the SPIRIT OF GOD HIMSELF is working POWERFULLY to make spiritually dead people come to life...

We have to understand that in that moment the SPIRIT OF GOD is working POWERFULLY to make spiritually dead people come to life...

The same Spirit who was hovering over the waters in …

the same Spirit or “breath” of life that filled the lungs of Adam…

the same Spirit who was leading the Israelites through the wilderness…

The same Spirit who anointed the kings of Israel to win great victories and lead God’s people in righteousness… and departed from them when they rejected God..

The same Spirit who came upon the returned exiles to fill them with power to finish the work of the Lord in building the temple…

The same Spirit who led Jesus out into the wilderness as he was tempted through 40 days of fasting by the devil...

The same Spirit who was in the most Holy Place of the Temple… and tore the temple curtain open at the crucifixion of Christ…

The same Spirit who raised Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead…

That same Spirit indwells every true follower of Jesus Christ in the present age.

- You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (ESV)

Do you believe that?

I mean… not just in your mind… but in the way you live your life… has that reality BLOWN your mind recently???

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (ESV)

That through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, you get to have God himself who orders the heavens... uniquely dwelling inside you???

You must believe that your sin deserved eternal separation from God…

But that Jesus… the Son of God... died in your place to free you from the curse of that sin… that he paid the price of eternal death that you owed..

And that he rose again to give you a whole new life…

And if you truly believe THAT… then you realize that the new life he gives is the life of the Holy Spirit in you.

It’s not just life after you die… it’s the power of God at work in you NOW to change EVERYTHING about your life...

That if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, then God has given you the fullness of the same power that raised Jesus from the dead...

Your purpose… your priorities… your power over sin…

The curtain of the temple was torn… the glory of God departed… and then 50 days later, that same glory entered into God’s people and started the church.

The sacrifice had been made… total access to God’s presence had been purchased… now God’s people could live as they were intended to live…

Consumed by the power of God.

Do you believe that?

When you consider the sin that must be overcome in your life… do you believe that?

There is no sin so small that God doesn’t care about and no sin so big that he cannot overcome by the power of his Holy Spirit!

When you consider the service to the church that God has called you to do… maybe it’s teaching a kids class or leading a Gospel Community prayer time...

Do you think about the POWER that is immediately ready to get the job done?

When you consider the forgiveness and unity God has called you to maintain in the church… do you believe that the Spirit can do that work in your heart?

When you consider the person that God has put in your life to share the gospel with… do you believe the Spirit of God is with you to give you the words to say and to open their hearts?

God’s story is a story of the POWER of the Holy Spirit from beginning to end… and I SOOOO long for us to experience that…

Big Idea: Take hold of the power of the Spirit to be a witness for Jesus.

Big Idea: Participate in God's mission through God's Spirit as God's witness.

Context: Your Bibles are open to the book of Acts: 2nd volume written by Luke…

Acts tells the story of how the church first came into existence and how it expanded...

Really, the New Testament story wouldn’t really be much of a story if it weren’t for Acts...

The New Testament doesn’t have any shape… any historical context… and backbone of narrative… if we don’t have the book of Acts.

Most of the New Testament is a series of letters to young churches telling them what they need to believe and do...

Acts gives us the structure for how we should un

Acts tells us generally how those churches came to be churches in the first place...

We usually just call the book “Acts” based on it’s traditional title, “The Acts of the Apostles”… but many have rightly suggested it is better called, “The Acts of the Holy Spirit...” or “The Acts of Jesus THROUGH the Holy Spirit and his Apostles” (that would be a mouthful…)

But Luke says that in the first book (which we know as the Gospel of Luke), he wrote concerning all the things Jesus BEGAN to do and teach…

He says that in the first book (which we know as the Gospel of Luke), he wrote concerning all the things Jesus BEGAN to do and teach…

That means that Acts is the things that Jesus CONTINUED to do and teach…

But Jesus physically leaves the picture in chapter 1… and the rest of his work is carried out by the Holy Spirit at work through his body... the church.

So even though we are only in chapter 1 today, we are peering into the final physical appearance of Jesus to his disciples on the Mount of Olives…

And now 120 of them are gathered there… and we pick up the scene in v. 6…

And now 120 of them are gathered with Jesus on the Mount of Olives… this is the last interaction with Jesus before he ascends into heaven...

Read

You’ll remember that during Jesus’ life and ministry, he identified himself as the Promised Anointed King… the Messiah or the word we use more often… the Christ… and he preached, “The Kingdom of God is at hand… REPENT and believe in the gospel.”

Many people in Jesus’ day… including his disciples... were waiting for a political Messiah… (rescue from Roman oppression… bring back the scattered Israelites from the foreign nations… reestablish the throne of David)

And so his followers are like, “OK… NOW you have done what you said you would do… you died and rose again… is NOW the time???”

And we read in the Gospels that Jesus was constantly redirecting them to the true nature of his Kingdom...

One day in the future he would return to establish a physical kingdom on earth...

But it was not yet time for that… his mission in his first coming was not to restore the kingdom to Israel...

He had a different mission… to restore people from ALL nations to God.

The Kingdom… while it came THROUGH Israel… was to bless ALL nations.

It was ALL of God’s people… in God’s place… experiencing God’s power and presence.

And so Jesus says, “It’s not for you to know times or seasons...”

We’ve seen that God’s story has unfolded in many different times and seasons… where he had specific objectives that contributed to the whole story…

God had another season before the Kingdom was restored to Israel… the church age… that’s the season we are in right now…

Creation… Fall… the Patriarchs… the Exodus into the time the conquest of the promised land and then the time of the Judges… the Kings… The Exile… the Return… we have the first coming of Jesus Christ…

In each of these seasons, God is moving us toward the end when the kingdom of this world becomes the Kingdom of our Lord… just as he intended it to be from the moment of first creation...

But the disciples and Israel could not see the next season coming… the time when the Kingdom would expand beyond the nation of Israel… through the gospel… through the church… that’s the season we are in right now, by the way… awaiting the return of the King…

So Jesus says, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority… BUT you will receive power...”

That’s what the word “receive” means in the original… to take hold… to make it our possession… to experience something...

That’s the first part of our big idea...

God says, “Times and seasons are within MY realm of authority… not yours.”

Your job is not fortune telling.

Your job is not to understand the timing of events or how it all fits together… even within your own part of the story…

Your job is not to control outcomes.

Your “job” (if you can call it a “job”) is to receive… to take hold… of the power I DO give to you.

That’s the first part of our big idea...

“It is not for you to know times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority… but you will receive power...”

If you have a KJV, both of those words are translated the same… POWER… but they are two different words… authority… and power...

Authority is a realm of power…

Take hold of the power of the Spirit... (1:6-7)

Explain: Jesus calles us to RECEIVE… to TAKE HOLD of power that comes upon you…

It was about his glory filling the earth through his people… it was about blessing the nations through them. THAT’S the mission of God in every time and in every season…

A lot of times we think that God only cared about one nation in the Old Testament and now all of the sudden he cares about all nations knowing him...

But that’s just not the case…

So let’s just think about the times and seasons we’ve studied already...

The Kingdom of God started all the way back when God created all things..

As Creator, he was King...

And he created mankind, male and female, in his image… they were to be his representative rulers on the earth...

We talked about this in the first sermon in this series… God blessed the man and woman and gave them a mandate in the Garden:

“And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” ( ESV)

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (ESV)

I want you to see this here: God’s goal from the very beginning is that his earth would be FILLED with man and woman perfectly bearing his image.

That was his intent in creating us.

His glory filling the earth through his people.

But humanity fell into sin… they tried to replace the glory of God with their own glory… they thought they could be like God…

And so as humanity fell deeper and deeper into sin, God destroyed the earth with a flood, and as they repopulated, they decided to build a tower to heaven in defiance against God…

They said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” ( ESV)

They refused to fill the earth with the image of God… so God did it for them… he scattered them over the face of the earth and formed the nations from them...

Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” (ESV)

It’s the first time in the Bible we get the concept of the Nations… the Nations… diversity in culture and ethnicity spread over the face of the whole earth… that was God’s idea…

But the nations fell into idolatry… and warred against one another trying to dominate the world… and in the midst of all that, God called out a man named Abram...

And he made a promise to Abram… And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” ( ESV)

That nation was the nation of Israel… there was a special covenant relationship with them… but the promise was clear that ALL of the nations would be blessed through Abraham’s offspring… and through that nation...

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (ESV)

So the nation of Israel was established to be a Kingdom of Priests to God… to represent God to the rest of the world… he would be their God… their king… and they would be his subjects…

But as time went on, that nation demanded a human king… and God eventually gave them King David…

And he promised that one of his offspring would sit on his throne forever...

And that his immediate offspring would build a temple for God...

A temple that God said would be a “house of prayer for all peoples.”

People would come from all nations to relate to God through the covenant of Israel at the temple in Jerusalem.

And the prophets foretold of both judgement and hope for the nations of the earth, depending upon how they related to God’s anointed King...

Zechariah prophesied, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” ( ESV)

For the earth will be filled

with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD

as the waters cover the sea. (ESV)

And so at the time of , the King has come… he is about to ascend into heaven and take up his throne at the right hand of God...

And in , the nations have LITERALLY come to pray at the temple in Jerusalem...

And they are going to be given opportunity to respond to the good news that Jesus is King and that forgiveness of sins is offered in his name…

And throughout the book of Acts, we find out that the gospel during THIS time and season that we are in right now is going to PRIMARILY be received by the Nations… the Gentiles... until the glory of God fills the earth through his people.

God will one day restore the Kingdom to Israel as Jesus returns and reigns for 1000 years from Jerusalem… but his MISSION is bigger than that...

It’s to call ALL NATIONS to know the glory of the King...

And not just to know his glory… but to be filled with his glory as they put their trust in the King and he redeems them through the curse of sin…

When the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed and believed… his people are transformed into the image of Christ… they are restored into the image of God that he intended in the garden… and the result is that the glory fills the earth… the way he always intended.

the glory fills the earth… that’s been God’s goal since the beginning.

The priority of God in the present age is not just that all nations would come to one place to encounter his glory… but that his glory would extend to all nations through the gospel.

Illustrate:

Apply:

"God's Spirit": His glory uniquely present with his people. (1:8a)

You are receiving… taking hold of power that comes upon you…

The power isn’t just a theoretical power… it’s a power that actually changes your experience…

It’s not YOUR power for YOUR purposes… it’s God’s power for HIS purposes… to accomplish his purposes in the season of time we are in.

God doesn’t give us absolute authority… he fills us with the power that we need to live under HIS authority.

If you have a King James bible, there are two words that are translated the same… they are both translated POWER… but they are two different words in the original… and in most other translations… authority… and power...

Explain:

The word translated “Authority” refers to a domain of power… it’s the extent to which power reaches…

Illustrate:

And Jesus says that God ALONE has authority over times and seasons… he alone has the power to write the whole story of human existence…

Apply:

He knows how it began… and he knows how it will continue forever...

That is within HIS realm of authority… not yours.

I hope that’s comforting to you, by the way… That the God who created you… that the God who ties up the stars and holds them in order... the God who raised Jesus from the dead… has the AUTHORITY to mark out every time and season...

That the God who created you… the God who raised Jesus from the dead… has the AUTHORITY to mark out every time and season...

He does that on a grand scale… he knew the precise date of Jesus’ death… he knew the precise date of Jesus’ future return for his people from before the moment he said let there be light...

And you can trust that he knows the times and seasons of your life...

He knows and controls if/when you will graduate high school...

He knows and controls if/when you will get married… and who it will be.

The times and seasons of your life are marked out by God in a way that serves the greater story of salvation that he is writing for all people in all time.

He knows and controls if/when he’s going to resolve that job situation...

He knows and controls if/when he’s going to restore your health...

And he’s not expecting you to know those things or control those things… instead, he uses the times and seasons of our lives to work out HIS story of salvation...

Both in our own lives… and in the lives of the people around us.

He knows and controls how the timing of the events in your life are going to shape you and build your faith...

He knows how they are going to lead you to bump into other people so that you can share the gospel with them...

He knows how every event in every person’s life is going to result in the full number of his people coming to know him more fully through Jesus Christ.

And he’s not given that domain of power to us…

Since the beginning of the story, mankind has always been looking for authority that is not ours to have.

Jesus says, “It’s not for you to know… Times and seasons are within the GOD THE FATHER’S realm of authority… not yours.”

Your job is not fortune telling.

And he’s not given that domain of power to us…

Your job is not to understand the timing of events or how it all fits together… even within your own part of the story…

Your job is not to control outcomes.

Your “job” (if you can call it a “job”) is to receive… to take hold… of the power that he DOES give to you.

And what he gives you is The POWER of the Spirit of God… the third person of the Trinity… God himself… to guide you through the times and seasons that are still unknown to you and that I have ordained.

Instead, he’s given us the power… the MIGHT… that we need to walk in the time and season we are in.

The POWER is the Spirit of God… the third person of the Trinity… God himself… given to us.

“It is not for you to know times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority… but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you...”

He doesn’t give us power so that we can go do things that WE want to do out of our OWN authority…

He doesn’t put his limitless power into our finite control..

He has paid the death-price that was on your head because of your sin… he has freed you from the curse that enslaved you…

He has breathed life into your spiritually dead soul.

He has indwelled you with HIS OWN PRESENCE.

And he has promised to guide you toward his good purposes for you.

That’s mind-blowing! That’s life-altering!!!

He maintains his limitless authority and then imparts himself to his people who put their faith in him to unfold the times and seasons that he has ordained.

So let me ask you this, “If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, do you understand the power that God has given you for the life that he has called you to live?”

He has paid the death-price that was on your head because of your sin… he has freed you from the curse that enslaved you…

He has breathed life into your spiritually dead soul.

He has left his earthly temple to indwell with HIS OWN PRESENCE.

And he has promised to guide you into all his good purposes for you.

That’s mind-blowing! That’s life-altering!!!

It is our great privilege and joy to simply RECEIVE… to take hold of that power!

That’s what the word “receive” means in the original… to take hold… to make it our possession… to experience something...

Illustration: But so many people try to do the Christian life without taking hold of the Spirit...

It’s not that they don’t have the Holy Spirit… it’s that they ignore his power… or work against it in their lives.

Earlier this year a pastor friend of mine named John Anderson taught Katy and I how to Catamaran...

Throughout the day, he was careful to always park on a hill or to leave his engine running when he stopped for short visits. For two years the young missionary used what he believed was an ingenious method to enable him to use the car.

When poor health forced the Jackson family to leave the field, a new missionary arrived to lead the mission. When Jackson explained to the new missionary his methods for starting the car, the young man opened the hood and began inspecting. “Why, Dr. Jackson,” he interrupted, “I believe the only trouble is the loose cable.” He gave the cable a twist, pushed the switch, and the engine roared to life.

And if you’ve never done it before, a Catamaran is a very small pontoon boat with a sail…

And the whole goal is to keep the thing moving simply by turning the sail so that it fills with wind...

[He concludes] For two years, Dr. Jackson had used his own devices and endured needless trouble. The power to start the car was there all the time—it only needed to be connected.

For two years, Dr. Jackson had used his own devices and endured needless trouble. The power to start the car was there all the time—it only needed to be connected.

So when the sail was full, we were cruising… just ask Katy, she was a little terrified… I mean it was exhilarating to me…

source: https://ministry127.com/resources/illustration/the-power-must-be-used - Living Beyond Your Capacity, Paul Chappell

So when the sail was full, we were cruising… just ask Katy, she was a little terrified…

But if you start going against the wind, you quickly stop and you become like a sitting duck… and it’s really hard to get going again…

And that’s a lot like life with the Holy Spirit...

It’s not that his power stops moving… it’s that we position ourselves headlong against it… we end up not letting the wind take hold of our sail…

He has paid the death-price that was on your head because of your sin… he has freed you from the curse that enslaved you…

He has breathed life into your spiritually dead soul.

He has indwelled you with HIS OWN PRESENCE.

And he has promised to guide you toward his good purposes for you.

That’s mind-blowing! That’s life-altering!!!

You see, if I’m honest, I don’t always take hold of the power of the Spirit that is available to me.

I pray and read my Bible in the morning only to forget all of what God said… and all about God’s presence with me later in the day.

I get distracted from prayer by my to-do list… and I walk away from the very thing I NEED in order to accomplish any of it with any lasting value…

I act like temptation to sin is too strong for the power of God... or that his rules are too heavy to follow… or worse… I entertain and maintain my sin for a little while if I’m not careful...

I can put off the opportunity to be held accountable by other spirit-filled believers who want nothing more than to see me thrive in Christ.

I can act like what God is asking of me is too big or too scary… that he won’t take care of me if I do the things he’s calling me to do…

I worry about things that are entirely outside of my control simply because I can’t see the outcome.

I fear walking up to someone and talking to them about Jesus because the conversation might be awkward.

Anyone with me on this stuff???

And then what happens is we settle.

We settle for living life without the wind in our sails… we settle for doing the same old things we always did them... just with a Jesus twist...

We settle for the same escape mechanisms of material possessions and entertainment… but just make sure it’s “wholesome...”

We settle for the same feelings of defeat or fear or joylessness, assuming they are just a part of “being human”… or even that it is somehow more spiritual to be gloomy...

We settle for the same use of our energy and resources as if we had no Holy Spirit at all empowering us and providing for our needs...

We settle for the same church activities that we could do in the power of our flesh… instead of taking hold of the power of God through FERVENT PRAYER and PASSIONATE HEART-FELT WORSHIP and BOLD PREACHING and COURAGEOUS EVANGELISM...

Too often we know that the wind is blowing… but our sail is set against it… and the cloth of our sail is limp and barely flapping…

Or to use another analogy, we are often like little children playing with model rockets when we’ve been invited to sit on the next launch by SpaceX.

In the New Testament, a young pastor named Timothy was having a problem with this much like us....

The Apostle Paul had to write a letter to him saying, “we have not been given a spirit of fear… but of POWER and love and self-control.”

Personally, I have to go back to that verse OFTEN to remind myself to TAKE HOLD of the power that God has given through his Spirit.

Let me ask you this: Is your Christian experience one of defeat and/or fear, or one of power and love and self-control? (see )

I’ve been asking this question in a few ways over the past few weeks… is your life NOTICEABLY different because you have Christ and the Holy Spirit in your life than if you didn’t have Christ?

I have to say, us elders were sitting at an elder planning day yesterday… and we had invited some ladies from AROMA to share about some of the things that God is doing in through that ministry… and I heard some AMAZING testimonies to the POWER of the Holy Spirit who is working in some amazing ways…

So I don’t want it to sound like I don’t believe the Spirit is at work in our church… I KNOW he is!!!!

And I just want our sails to be set… ALL OF US…

Because I guarantee you… for ALL of us… there is more to “take hold” of.

I’m not saying that God has withheld the Holy Spirit from you…

I’m saying that we don’t always “take hold” of that which has already been given to us.

And we need to start every day afresh, reminding ourselves of this power of God that indwells us… we need to ask God to help us experience… take hold… of the power of his Holy Spirit.

One of the things that I’ve tried to start doing is to have regular intervals… when I wake up… at lunch… on my way home… and before bed...

To thank God for what has just taken place in my day… to confess any known sin… and then to seek his power and presence in the next part of the day...

And I’m still building the habit… but it has changed the way I think about each day and the Spirit who wants to guide me!

And it gives me a noticeable marker to inspire ongoing prayer and dependence WITHIN those intervals to that I TAKE HOLD of the power of God that is mine in Christ Jesus.

Throughout the book of Acts, this “taking hold” was referred to as being “filled with the Spirit.”

And every time we see it, it is being used for a specific purpose: to proclaim the message of Jesus as a witness to his powerful death and resurrection.

You see, the Spirit doesn’t just empower us for whatever we want to happen in our story...

That’s where so many go wrong with the Spiritual gifts… they think it is all about what THEY want and drawing attention to themselves...

No the Spirit’s power is given to advance God’s story...

…to be a witness for Jesus. (1:8b)

Take hold of the power of the Spirit to be a witness for Jesus.

Now there is a TON of questions about the nature of the Spirit’s work in the book of Acts and how much should we expect to see these events repeated today...

And on that point I want to say three things briefly...

1) Acts was a UNIQUE time where the gospel was breaking into new territories… and the Spirit was acting in some unique ways…

2) Acts is a DESCRIPTION of how the Holy Spirit worked… the Spirit of God CAN do what he wants to in any age...

3) And at the same time Acts is a MODEL for churches today, not necessarily in the specifics to imitate within each story, but in the pattern that it lays out.

We can trust that the Holy Spirit is JUST AS POWERFUL and JUST AS CAPABLE of MASSIVE GOSPEL EXPANSION as he was 2000 years ago...

In fact, in most of Asia, they ARE seeing that same type of rapid expansion under intense persecution and opposition… places like Korea… places like India…

But in every place, we need to understand the PATTERN of disciples and churches that are WHOLEHEARTEDLY SURRENDERED to the work of the Spirit in their midst.

We see that pattern in Jesus’ words… you will be my WITNESSES... in Jerusalem… Judea/Samaria… and to the ends of the earth.

When the Spirit gets a-hold of his people… the gospel goes to the nations…

If you look at the book of Acts, it seems that Luke has used this pattern as one of three outlines for his book...

The church is confined to Jerusalem in … then breaks into Judea/Samaria in … and then multiplies to the ends of the earth in …

And in each of those sections, we can see three ways the Spirit empowers his people to be witnesses for Jesus. And the first is this:

...through Gospel-Transformed Community ("Jerusalem" - )

We bear witness to Jesus THROUGH living together in Gospel-Transformed church community.

So in , on the day of Pentecost… 120 of Jesus’ disciples were sitting in an upper room and the sound of a great rushing wind was heard and there appeared something like tongues of fire above their heads...

120 of Jesus’ disciples were sitting in an upper room and the sound of a great rushing wind was heard and there appeared something like tongues of fire above their heads...

It was a visual representation of the glory of the Lord… the Spirit of God… coming upon Christ’s disciples TOGETHER…

And they all started speaking in different.... KNOWN languages that were UNKNOWN to the one who was speaking it… we call it tongues.

But what the Spirit was doing was communicating the message of Jesus to people from all over the Roman world who heard the message in THEIR OWN language...

And Peter stood up as the primary speaker and was a WITNESS to the good news of Jesus… to his life, death, burial and resurrection...

And he called all to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus...

And 3000 people were added to their number in one day.

Can you IMAGINE???

How do you organize that size of a group of people??? Turn over in your Bibles to

They were organized very simply… they didn’t have to prod the people into involvement… they didn’t have to woo them with special tricks or free coffee… they didn’t need fancy programs or buildings…

They simply relied on the power of the Spirit to transform their community through the gospel…

The Spirit had so overtaken these people that we read in - “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (, ESV)

This isn’t necessarily a prescription of what will automatically happen every time the Spirit transforms our community life… but it does provide a bit of a pattern...

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ac 2:42–47). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Devote yourselves to the Apostles teaching (the explanation of the whole story of God through the lens of Jesus Christ)…

Devote yourselves to fellowship (partner with your time, talent and treasure around the common desire to see ALL come to know Christ more fully)…

Devote yourselves to breaking bread together (share meals and use those meals to remember the body and blood of Jesus)

and devote yourselves to prayers… pray with gladness… pray with praise…

And in , God used that type of community to show the transformation that he alone can bring.

As they were simply BEING a Gospel-Transformed community TOGETHER… the Lord added to their number day by day.

Can you imagine that… day by day???

Like if if it was just one conversion per day… that’s SEVEN baptisms PER WEEK!!!

That just doesn’t happen in the world. Where people from different backgrounds and nationalities just spend time sacrificing all they have because of their common devotion to Jesus!!!

People started taking notice… they had favor… and the LORD was adding to their number DAY BY DAY those who were being saved!!!

Fast forward… they face some persecution… a couple of the twelve are temporarily jailed… they get released… and they immediately drop what they are doing… get together… and PRAY… they have a “room shaking… Spirit-led, scripture-fed, worhsip based” PRAYER meeting....

And they didn’ just pray for safety or for the bad guys to be dealt with...

They prayed for BOLDNESS in the face of persecution.

And so we get another description of their radical community in chapter 4-5… remember… some of these people came from other lands..

And they’ve been staying around in Jerusalem to be part of this new community… possibly for even as much as a YEAR…

And so some needs are arising…

And they develop this practice of church members not just giving their tithe… but SELLING their possessions to contribute to the needs of their brothers and sisters in Christ… laying them at the Apostles feet… and the Apostles are distributing them as the needs arise…

Except there are these two… Ananias and Saphira… and they withhold a little bit of their proceeds and they lie about it...

So God kills them right there on the spot...

And so maybe at this point, we think that this will harm the witness the church...

These people are a little nuts… people are dying for lying about some money that was originally theirs to keep… like I don’t want to be held to that kind of standard…

But here are the next words that Luke records… “Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women....” (, ESV)

The witness of the Spirit kept out false believers… but more believers than EVER were added to the Lord…

Listen… when the Holy Spirit gets a hold of a church community… he doesn’t just transform the church… he transforms the people around the church...

There is no “either/or” between building disciples in the church and reaching the lost outside the church...

When the Spirit is moving in our midst… he uses that as a testimony to the watching world.

One of the most POWERFUL testimonies we have to the unsaved people around us is the way we love Jesus together as a church… as a covenant family of families...

The way we lay down our rights and our lives to take care of one another...

The way we devote ourselves to the teaching of this book...

The way we LOVE being with one another and helping one another grow in Jesus...

The way we break bread together and allow remembering his gospel to be our sweetest of conversations.

That is one of the PRIMARY ways we can know we are taking hold of the power of the Spirit… and it is one of the primary ways we become a witness to Christ’s work in our lives…

And so just do a quick heart-check: Are you devoted to the same pattern of gospel-transformed community as the first believers in Acts?

Are you DEVOTED to the Apostles teaching… the fellowship… the breaking of bread… the prayers...

Or do you just participate when it is convenient?

How could you grow in your expression of Spirit-driven community?

Now what was going on in this Jerusalem church was AMAZING...

But it wasn’t all that Jesus called them to… like this was just the foundation of being his witnesses…

Remember, they were to be Christ’s witnesses BEYOND Jerusalem to Judea-Samaria...

And so God allowed this incredible persecution of the church to start in Jerusalem…

And in chapter 8, we read, And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles… Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word…

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

What we see in this next section about Judea ad Samaria is how the disciples of Jesus and the Apostles took hold of the Holy Spirit’s power to be witnesses for Christ…

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

...through Boundary-Breaking Advancement ("Judea/Samaria" )

You see… it’s one thing to be a witness for Christ where you feel comfortable… but it’s a whole different thing to break down boundaries to advance the gospel...

And the first boundary that we see broken is...

Fear

There is a great persecution… Saul is leading a group of devout Jews to put an end to this sect who they call “the Way...”

And in the midst of that… they are scattered… but they STILL keep telling people about Jesus!

All throughout Judea and Samaria… we see Philip preaching and teaching… we see ALL WHO WERE SCATTERED preaching the good news...

Now if I’m forced away from the place I’ve been living because they don’t like the gospel… what’s my first temptation?

To NOT share the gospel… to lay low for a while!!! To be AFRAID!!!

To assume that persecution is a boundary that I shouldn’t break though!

But not when you’ve taken hold of the power of the Spirit.

At that point you can’t help but tell of the things you’ve seen and heard.

We also see them overcome…

Prejudice

It’s in this Judea/Samaria section that we see the gospel go first to the Samaritans...

The first Christians who were good little Jews growing up would have been taught that the Samaritans were half-breeds… impure… cast off by God… you don’t talk to them…

But then all of the sudden they see the Spirit working powerfully to bring them to salvation...

Then we see the Spirit get a hold of Saul of

Then we see the gospel go not just to the half-breeds… but to Cornelius… a Roman Centurion… not a drop of Jewish blood in him...

And again, the Spirit is showing POWERFULLY that he is at work...

And he gives Peter a dream that is entirely meant to overcome the prejudice in his heart...

Prejudice is a HUGE boundary to the witness of the Spirit in our lives.

Whenever we think about “those people” over there… whether that’s based on race or economics or sexuality or other types of sin...

Whenever we think about “those people” and forget that “once we were there too...”

Whenever we forget that Christ found us when we were dead in our sin…

We have a boundary that the Spirit wants to overcome...

And he will do whatever it takes to break down that boundary in our lives.

And when he does… it is a POWERFUL witness to the gospel...

Our DIVERSITY… in whatever ways possible… is a witness to the boundary destroying work of the gospel in our lives.

As the gospel advanced, the Spirit also had to break down the boundary of...

Opposition

In , King Herod kills James, who is the first Apostle to be Martyred, and then Peter himself is imprisoned.

And the Spirit powerfully releases Peter from prison while the rest of the church is praying...

And he strikes Herod dead.

He breaks the boundary of opposition…

And inserted just a few chapters back in chapter 9, we see the Spirit overcome possibly the greatest boundary of all…

Blindness [spiritual blindness]

Saul of Tarsus… the great persecutor of Christians… a self-admitted murderer… is struck physically blind as he encounters the risen Christ on his way to kill more Christians…

And it’s a physical representation of his spiritual blindness…

And God removes both his spiritual and physical blindness… and he starts preaching about Jesus...

Listen… there are so many other boundaries that the Holy Spirit tears down so that we can be effective witnesses for Christ...

And I wonder… do you have any boundaries that he wants to break down in your life?

Maybe fear is holding you back… or prejudice… maybe you’ve allowed some opposition to be a wall rather than an open door to the power of God...

Maybe you are even still now spiritually blind… and you need to come to know Jesus… the crucified and risen Lord who can change you from the inside out…

Do you have any mindsets or even physical limitations that need to be broken down for God’s work to advance through your life and through our church?

Ask the God to break down those boundaries through the Holy Spirit.

So Saul… who we later know as Paul... immediately starts preaching the gospel… but he is a major target for those he once worked with...

Imagine if the leader of a gang all of the sudden joined the police force… not going to go well...

So he goes off to his home-town to be discipled some more… for what most scholars believe was a period of about 12 years...

Paul had a GOOD foundation laid before he became a missionary...

And then a guy named Barnabas sends for him in Tarsus...

Barnabas wants him to basically be the associate pastor at the church in Antioch…

And they spend a year together establishing the church there…

And things are going great…

They are having a worship and fasting service together....

And the Holy Spirit says, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them...”

And what we see next is not just boundary-breaking multiplication… but…

…through Self-Sacrificing Multiplication ("to the ends of the earth" - )

For the gospel to break out of Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria to then reach the ends of the earth… it took a move of the Spirit to produce the testimony of self-sacrifice.

That was on a church scale and on a personal scale… first the church scale…

Churches releasing their resources

Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul… your two primary teachers… your pastor and your associate pastor...

And the church said, “YES!!! We will do that!!!”

That only happens when you are sure it’s the Holy Spirit calling…

In fact, says that they prayed and fasted some more after he said it… I believe to confirm the calling…

And the result is the first missionary journey… with multiple churches planted in a period of 2 years...

Followed by a second and a third...

And every time, the churches were called upon to give up their resources...

They couldn’t hang onto Paul, their favorite teacher who was like a spiritual dad to them…

They couldn’t hang onto their money when other churches in other places were suffering because of famine...

Or when Paul’s team needed funded in other places...

We’ve seen this at Oak Hill when the Spirit called us to send out our founding pastor...

We’ve seen it when we’ve been called upon to give special gifts to provide for needs or to fund the ministry...

And the Spirit has ALWAYS worked powerfully when we as a church have released our resources...

But it’s not just churches corporately… that has to be the heart of every follower of Jesus within the church...

We take hold of the Spirit’s power to be Christ’s witnesses when we release our rights.

That’s the second way the Spirit uses the testimony of self-sacrificing multiplication…

Disciples releasing their rights

We see in Acts Paul endure beatings and shipwrecks and snake bites and false accusations...

And the only time he appeals to his own rights is when it gets him closer to his goal… getting the gospel to the ends of the earth...

He is dead set on getting to Rome and from there moving on to Spain…

He WILL NOT ALLOW his own sense of personal rights to get in the way of his participation in the story God is writing...

And I just think about how different that is now from when you hear Christians in the news...

Constantly fighting for our rights that we feel like we’ve lost while the society hears us merely as wining scaredy-cats...

What would it look like instead if we gave up our rights for the sake of the gospel… and only appealed to them where it was advantageous for the gospel???

Is there anything that you are not willing to sacrifice for the multiplication of the gospel?

Is there anything that you are saying, “I’ll give you this, Lord, but nothing more!!!”

Confess that to the Lord and ask him to give you a self-sacrificing heart for the multiplication of his gospel to more disciples… so that more churches are planted… so that the gospel goes to the ends of the earth...

We had an elder planning day yesterday… and I believe we are so focused on this… I’m so fired up about what God wants to do in this next year…

We want to share some of those things with you on Dec. 15 at 11am during a family chat...

But for now I want you do some heart work before the Lord… to take hold of the power of the Spirit to be a witness for Jesus.

I’ve asked you a lot of heart revealing questions today… they are in the personal application section of your notes...

And I want to urge you to spend some time in prayer before the Lord right now… asking him to make you more reliant on his power…

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